Is the Essence of Christianity "Social Justice"?

[jimmyjimmy]

If reduced down to its essence, does Christianity = "social justice"?

 

[SkyWriting]

If reduced down to its essence, does Christianity = "social justice"?

In everything then,
do unto others
as you would have them do unto you.
For this is the essence
of the Law and the prophets.

 

[Dave-W]

Not at all. It can INCLUDE social justice, but that is not its core. Here is the core:

Jer 31.31 “Behold, days are coming,” declares the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, 32 not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them,” declares the Lord. 33 “But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days,” declares the Lord, “I will put My law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. 34 They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them,” declares the Lord, “for I will forgive their iniquity, and their sin I will remember no more.”

 

[Uber Genius]

How does one transform their life and heart for the needy with becoming a disciple?

How does someone become a disciple without becoming Christian?

How does someone become Christian unless they come to understand who Christ is and why he came?

There is an order of operations that can't be ignored. The liberal churches thought they could jettison the historic Jesus, the cross, and disciple-making, and just focus on the social gospel (since 1960s or earlier in the U.S.).

We can't reject Jesus as Lord, the transformative work of the HS, the intellectual, emotional and spiritual growth as taught by Christ, and decide to treat God's plan as an a la carte menu.

 

[com7fy8]

"For whom He foreknew, He also predestined to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren." (Romans 8:29)

"And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing." (1 Corinthians 13:3)

Social helping needs to be done with personal caring and sharing . . . not only giving materials from a distance in order to get rid of somebody from our conscience.

 

[Aino]

The essence of christianity is the gospel. The gospel is that all people are created by God, but are by nature fallen and in need of salvation. That was revealed in the craeation and further in the law of Moses Whatever the patriarchs believed and the prophets preached was a foreshadowing of the salvation that was to come to God's people, first jews then gentiles. God's love and good will towards us is the essence of christianity. That we're free from sin and the law that made us guilty.

We're supposed to love each other and be good toward our neighbours. But what we do is secondary. The essence is where we put our faith to and how we preach it to others.